200 NEW ZEALAND. 



istic anecdote of what took place some time ago 

 in the south. A missionary Ibiuul a chief and his 

 ti-ibe in preparation for war — their muskets clean 

 and bright, and their ammunition ready. He rea- 

 soned long on the inutility of the war, and the lit- 

 tle provocation which had been given for it. The 

 chief was much shaken in his resolution, and seem- 

 ed in doubt ; but at length it occurred to him that 

 a barrel of liis gunpowder was in a bad state, and 

 that it would not keep much longer. This was 

 brought forward as an unanswerable ai-gument for 

 the necessity of immediately declaring war : the 

 idea of allowing so much good gunpowder to spoil 

 was not to be thought of, and this settled the 

 point. I was told by the missionaries that in the 

 life of Shongi, the chief who visited England, the 

 love of war was the one and lasting spring of ev- 

 ery action. The tribe in which he was a principal 

 chief had at one time been much oppressed by an- 

 other tribe from the Thames River. A solemn 

 oath was taken by the men, that when their boys 

 should grow up, and they should be powerful 

 enough, they would never forget or forgive these 

 injuries. To fulfil this oath appears to have been 

 Shongi's chief motive for going to England, and 

 when there it was his sole object. Presents were 

 valued only as they could be converted into arms ; 

 of the arts, those alone interested him which were 

 connected with the manufacture of arms. When 

 at Sydney, Shongi, by a strange coincidence, met 

 the hostile chief of the Thames River at the house 

 of Mr. Marsden : their conduct was civil to each 

 other; but Shongi told him that, when again in 

 New Zealand, he would never cease to carry war 

 into his country. The challenge was accepted, 

 and Shongi, on his return, fulfilled the threat to the 

 utmost letter. The tribe on the Thames River 



